A Divine Detail

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...is a detail costing £300 upwards worth it?

Is it worth it? Some people buy a watch for £,£££.00 while their smartphone shows the time more accurately than the watch, or they could buy a very accurate Swatch for £20. Go figure :)
 
Yes but they get something which is of value. Either superb craftmanship or expensive materials etc.
But washing and polishing some metal?
Go figurre...........
 
When I bought my pre-facelift E63, although it was an ex-MBUK car that was about 16 months old the Obsidian Black paintwork "looked like it had been washed with a brick" as Rashman of this province quite accurately put it. Because it was offered at a good price, I took a punt that it could be recovered if polished properly. It had been prepped by the dealer with a very high filler content polish, and it still looked bad, once it had a couple of washes and the filler disappeared it was appalling. No amount of hand polishing would have made a jot of difference.

I used a pro detailer to sort it out and they did an excellent job. They spent in excess of 40hrs machine polishing it and, frankly, life's too short to do that unless you're getting paid for it. Two years later when I sold it, it still looked superb so I'd say that was good value.
 
Horses for courses at the end of the day.

Some people spend quite large amounts of money on cars, and choose to spend a small percentage of that to keep them looking their very best. It’s the feel good factor of having it look nice during your ownership, and perhaps maintaining the condition for future resale. A lot of those people pay for specialist coatings to be applied as well which should help protect the paintwork and make it easier to wash as well.

You could simplify many tasks that people pay for - having their houses/windows cleaned, grass cut etc - no difference really. Car washing may not be a particularly skilled task but paint correction and applying coatings etc does require some care and expertise.

At the end of the day we all have different circumstances - income, ability, free time etc. So to suggest someone paying a few hundred quid for detailing their car has not made a good choice is a bit silly when you don’t necessarily know the reasons behind that decision.

I’ve not paid to have a car detailed before, but I’ve considered it a couple of times recently. I used to enjoy doing it myself, quite rewarding and therapeutic, have all the gear and the knowledge but sadly not enough free time nowadays to spend an entire day cleaning a car :)

I could see myself in future perhaps paying to have a car detailed and then just maintaining it myself, and would pay a few hundred quid to a professional rather than driving a poor looking car for years if I didn’t have the time to do it myself :cool:
 
I got my merc done yesterday by 1 of the valeters at work, he used auto glym magma to remove metal, tar and glue to remove the rest, machine polished some panels, then put the auto glym life shine system on it (2 exterior coatings to protect and shine) as well as glass coating, the wheel coating and tyre coatings that comes in the kit so this was a dealer level coating which requires a course to use right all for the cost of £40 +£8.34 that i had to spend on buying the magna, so that was definate value for money i think, the results are outstanding :)

A fresh white car just been freshly detailed look awesome i think, not as good as a black car but at least white looks cleaner for longer
 
Doesn't qualify as a detailing job as described and especially as priced - but you got good results and a fair price was paid.

Will:I'm not against detailing, far from it! I'm against the rip off fraternity that practice it for a living pretending it is a dark art:wallbash: and robbing joe public blind. [That's what I tell my brother anyway - and he agrees!!!].
 
I guess with their services it comes down to supply and demand.

If customers thought these detailers were charging too much for their time then they’d surely not have any work?

It’s not exactly a secret how they work or what products they use etc - many of them post pictures and techniques from start to finish. You’re paying for their experience and their time, and those that do this for a living must have the right sort of balance when it comes to pricing :)
 
Yes but they get something which is of value. Either superb craftmanship or expensive materials etc.
But washing and polishing some metal?
Go figurre...........
When I get my car detailed I get something of even greater value than superb craftsmanship or expensive materials: my time. I want my cars to be spot on, but my time is precious and so I pay someone to clean the who cares about my cars almost as much as I do, and for that I know I have to pay a premium.
 
Think that it is becoming apparent that some people pay others for a number of reasons eg time is precious, limited experience, bragging rights, desire a professional job, etc, whilst others (me inc) undertake ourselves as find it: relaxing, "therapeutic", value-for-money, learn a new skill etc, whilst some owners simply drive to a convenient "wash and go" handing over £3-25.

Guess it is "horses for courses".

As long as there are lots of "shiney" Benzes out there, who cares.
 
I honestly think that there is a smaller gap between DIY-Detailer (ie those of us that buy the kit, invest the time and use products that suit) and professional (£200-400) budget detailers.

Once you get to the £500-1000+ guys versus the "good polishing session by yourself" believe a huge gap opens up as evidenced by finish and longevity.

I think potentially you're absolutely right, if someone is prepared to buy the tools and do their homework there's nothing to say that with the right time and effort a DIY detailer couldn't achieve the same finishes as a Pro.

I think if you put a car side by side that's been detailed properly and one that hasn't, I think the average person if asked would spot the difference. Would they notice it day to day, probably not as people just spot clean paint and shiny tyres over an immaculate, swirl free finish but such is life. Same reason some people will be just as happy with a Casio watch as they would an Omega! Shiny is shiny, both watches tell the time.

I think there probably a big difference in professional detailers as well. I have known a few people who 'detail' cars for a living. The majority of which are essentially glorified valeters. Yes the car will look good, they'll put a machine polisher over your car and apply a nice wax etc. Nothing wrong with that but I suspect a lot of professionals fall into that category, many of which then go on to charge what I consider to be too much.

On the flip side, you take people like Ed who have such an attention to detail it goes to the next level. Understanding the products inside out, being able to spot the tiny differences in paint finishes, measuring paint depth etc. Also being able to tailor the needs of a customer and what they want without them having to pay a silly amount of money.

When you consider that a dealership will take £300 of your money to apply a coating. This will be slapped on and buffed off within an hour. They'll tell you it lasts years when it will just about last months. People lap that up and yet you could pay a quality detailer similar amounts of money to spend 1-2 entire days perfecting your car and protecting it with a coating which will actually last years.

The other thing people do fall into the trap with is that expensive means better. Again not true but I suspect lots of people go to an average detailer and because it costs X amount and the product they applied is X amount a tin/bottle it must be good!

Oh and lastly, the other trend with detailing as a whole is how many people launch their own range of products. Some such as Auto Finesse take off, many just die off or barely sell. Partly because the products are roughly the same, potentially made by the same labs just poured into different bottles!

Sorry for the long post haha
 
I personally always usually clean and detail my own cars, but with specialist coatings i would rather let someone who knows what their doing do it as i would probably mess it.up
 

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